This book was written by a British Army officer and decorated Western Front veteran. Soldiers could not publish books using their real names, so newspaper magnate Lord Northcliffe christened McNeile, Sapper, to reflect his Royal Engineers background, under which pseudonym the book was published. McNeile also wrote the Bulldog Drummond spy/wartime adventures.
No Man's Land is made up of five parts: The Way To The Land is a preface to the rest of the book in which fictional character Clive Draycott travels in Europe prior to the outbreak of the war. Part II The Land consists of 8 stories detailing the day to day lives of soldiers in the trenches. Part III Seed Time is about a salesman turned soldier, and Part IV Harvest in which Sapper puts forward the theory that war is awful, and many suffer but those who survive it can be changed for the better. Themes of class, gender, history abound. - Summary by afinevoice with grateful thanks to M Porcius
PrefacePart I. The Way To The Land - Sections i - xiiPart II. The Land - Section i. A Day Of PeacePart II. The Land - Section ii. Over The TopPart II. The Land - Section iii. The Man-TrapPart II. The Land - Section iv. A Point Of DetailPart II. The Land - Section v. My Lady Of The JasminePart II. The Land - Section vi. MorphiaPart II. The Land - vii. Bendigo Jones - His TreePart II. The Land - viii. The Song Of The BayonetPart III. Seed Time - i. The SeedPart III. Seed Time - ii. The First LessonPart III. Seed Time - iii. An Impersonal DemonstrationPart III. Seed Time - iv. Somewhat More PersonalPart III. Seed Time - v. A Project And Some Side-IssuesPart III. Seed Time - vi. The Second Lesson, And Some Further Side IssuesPart III. Seed Time - vii. The Third Lesson And A DigressionPart III. Seed Time - viii. The Third Lesson Is LearnedPart III. Seed Time - ix "And Other Fell On Good Ground"Part IV. Harvest
